Towards Engaged Civil Service: Employee Engagement Survey, 2019

Actively engaged workforce is need of the day in civil service that drives effective service delivery to the citizens as envisioned in the constitution and the new system of governance in Nepal. Studies show that civil service can achieve excellence by efficiently and effectively increasing their employee engagement (Ruyle, 2009). Though a lot of research has been carried out in the area of engagement, there remains paucity of academic literature regarding status of employee engagement, and its drivers in the context of Nepalese public sector. The research aimed at measuring level of employee engagement in Nepali civil service and identifying key drivers of employee engagement. Following descriptive deign, the study utilized work of Schaufeli et.al (2002) in seven-point scale to measure status of employee engagement in three major dimensions of engagement-Vigour, Dedication and Absorption. The study based on questionnaire survey among 139 officers in 21 different ministries of the Government of Nepal and constitutional bodies. The study finds “Average” level engagement of civil service with mean score of 4.66 in seven-point scale in three major domains of employee engagement. The study also finds that employee engagement is positively correlated with the age of employees, level of educational qualification, service period. Interestingly, employee engagement is higher for technical employees as compared to the non-technical ones. The study analyzed three driver domains- personal factors, human resource practice and work environment that explains degree of engagement in Nepali civil service. The research depicts that personal factors comprising of locus of control, learning attitude and work ethics have highest degree of correlation with employee engagement making it the major determinant or the key driver of employee engagement for the civil servants of Nepal. Similarly, human resource practices and work environment respectively explain the degree of employee engagement.